The present invention relates to improvements in and relating to an interconnection apparatus for wiring harnesses in which a busbar is arranged to form a large number of branch conductive paths and the electric cables of a wiring harness are connected to the branch conductive paths thereby providing a large number of branch circuits.
With a conventional wiring harness used for wiring the body of an automobile, it is necessary to provide a large number of branch circuits in the midst of the wiring harness and an interconnection apparatus for wiring harnesses (hereinafter simply referred to as an interconnection apparatus) is known in which a plurality of branch conductive paths corresponding to the previously mentioned wiring harness branch circuits are integrally formed on an electric wiring board by the arrangement of a busbar and the cables of a wiring harness are connected to the branch conductive paths thereby concentrically providing the desired branch circuits.
On the other hand, in order to ensure the functioning of the branch circuits, the wiring harness is required to arrange the required elements for the branch circuits, e.g., groups of functional components such as relays, diodes, capacitors and timers and incorporate these circuits in the branch circuits.
Thus, arrangements are in use in which these functional components are concentrated and accommodated in a casing for each branch circuit and the casings are mounted on an interconnection apparatus thereby incorporating them in the midst of the branch conductive paths or alternatively in the case of a time control unit, a power window timer and a power window control, for example, the required functional component groups are separately grouped and mounted scatteringly on the vehicle body thereby connecting them to the interconnection apparatus through the wiring harness.
With the recent sophiscation of automobiles, however, the number of branch circuits of a wiring harness is increased and also there is a remarkable tendency toward incorporating a very great number of functional components in each branch circuit thus giving rise to a need for making smaller and more compact the whole construction of a wiring harness system including an interconnection apparatus.